CSSB 304(RLS) - REGULATION OF MOTOR VEHICLES & HWYS Number 1156 CHAIRMAN WILLIAMS announced the next order of business would be CSSB 304 (RLS), "An Act relating to the bail or fine for an offense committed in a highway work zone; and providing for an effective date," sponsored by Senator Dave Donley. SENATOR DAVE DONLEY came before the committee to testify. he stated that SB 304 does one thing, which doubles the fines for traffic violations in construction zones. He noted that 26 other states have already done this. He explained that there is a very significant danger, both nationally and in Alaska, to the people who work on the roadways from people who don't follow the traffic controls. He said there have been fatalities in Alaska and when those occur, of course, they're tragic to the families, and they are also very expensive and costly to businesses because it raises workers' compensations rates, which creates lots of problems that way. He concluded he believes this bill will be a good public policy. REPRESENTATIVE HUDSON commented that he observed this type of situation on a recent visit to Montana and said he believes it does work. He stressed that there has to be proper signs indicating that the fines are doubled in a construction zone. He's assuming that DMV would include that. He stated that he does not see it in the fiscal note, but he is assuming that it won't be too expensive. SENATOR DONLEY said they discussed at length the signage and DMV has extensive regulations relating to signage, which is written into the contracts so that the contractors can comply. REPRESENTATIVE COWDERY said his understanding is that any sign company working in the right-of-way is licensed and has to pass a test in order to work in that right-of-way. He said for a lane change, you can't put one cone out and say change lanes, has to be done by a certain federal standards that the legislature has adopted. He asked who would be responsible for posting the signs regarding fines. Number 1317 DENNIS POSHARD, Legislative Liaison/Special Assistant, Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (DOT/PF), came before the committee to testify. He informed the committee that DOT/PF will be responsible for signage when it's a maintenance-type project and that they do not contract out for this type of work. He said when the department does contract out, they try and write that into the specifications for the bid so that they require the contractors to take care of the signage the same way they would with other signage. REPRESENTATIVE ELTON asked about the effective date. He commented that it might be too late for the upcoming construction season. SENATOR DONLEY replied that the original bill's effective date was delayed until the year 2000, but DOT/PF wanted to make it a date that gave the Department of Public Safety (DPS) and DOT/PF enough time to gear up for it and also to catch the next road construction season. He said he believes DOT/PF supports that effective date. MR. POSHARD replied DOT/PF does support the effective date. REPRESENTATIVE BEVERLY MASEK asked if there is information on the number of highway construction workers injured by reckless motorists in Alaska. MR. POSHARD said the department doesn't keep records of injuries that occur within a particular work zone. He said he did some research and found that in 1987 on the old Nenana and Parks Highway, a worker was struck by a truck and killed. In the same accident, another worker was severely injured with a head injury. In 1994 on Badger Road, a paving crew worker was working beside a paving lay down machine and was struck by a vehicle and received major leg and knee injuries and will have lifetime injuries as a result. He gave more examples of workers injured on the job. He concluded that it is a problem that they recognize and unfortunately DOT/PF has not kept statistics on injuries that have occurred within a work zone. He noted that they have statistics on injuries in total within the department from workers' compensation, and they have statistics on accidents all over the state, but there is no marriage of the information in the database. Number 1515 REPRESENTATIVE MASEK asked why DOT/PF didn't keep records on injuries that have occurred in a work zone. MR. POSHARD said he is not sure that DOT/PF ever realized that there was a need to differentiate. He said that is something the department intends to try and keep records on in the future so that any future considerations about laws relating to work zones, then they will have that information. He said their databases are mostly geared toward federal compliance and that the federal government has never requested that type of information. REPRESENTATIVE MASEK asked why there is a zero fiscal note. MR. POSHARD reiterated that the department's only expense would be for signage. In the cases of new construction, the department will try and require that the signage be done by the contractor. He referred to the department's workers and said DOT/PF felt that the expense for signs is already in their operating budget and that they will try and shift a portion of that money to obtain some of the work zone signs. REPRESENTATIVE MASEK asked if there any signs that are put out by DPS dealing with violations in construction areas. MR. POSHARD responded he is not aware of any information regarding violations because there is no current law that increases fines for work zones. He indicated he does not believe that DPS keeps track of those records that differentiate between work zones. He said he did not want to speak on behalf of DPS. Number 1633 REPRESENTATIVE MASEK said she was referring to traffic fines that deal with moving car violations. She said if DOT/PF had that information, they would be able to see what type of increase in revenue there would be and that is the reason for her questions regarding the fiscal note. MR. POSHARD said that question would be better answered by DPS. He said he does not have that information. It's not the responsibility of DOT/PF to issue the violations and then collect those fees. He said he believes from earlier committee meetings that DPS testified that they do not maintain information that differentiates between a work zone and another location on a particular highway. REPRESENTATIVE MASEK requested that DOT/PF provide information regarding the fiscal note and the impacts, and also what DPS has to say about it since it involves them. She commented that she is not feeling very comfortable with SB 304 without that information. She asked if there is a plan to begin a "give me a break" public education campaign similar to Washington State or Alaska indicating that this bill should become law. MR. POSHARD replied there will be some public education that would go along with this bill alerting people of the increased fines. He said he is not sure exactly what form that would take if it would be "give me a break" specifically campaign, but there would have to be some sort of public information campaign. He said they would produce some sort of a video, as well as have some television and radio spots that would hopefully run as a public service alerting drivers to the increase in fines. He said he will contact DPS regarding the fiscal note and if there is a reason why they have not put in for increased revenues or what their projections would be. He said DPS testified at a earlier committee meeting and they indicated they did not plan to increase enforcement within a work zone and that they were not going to suddenly, because this law passes, put more troopers watching out at work zones. They would, however, continue monitoring work zones as they currently do, they would just collect more fines for a violation that would occur within that work zone. REPRESENTATIVE MASEK pointed out that a lot of work was done last year on the Parks Highway between Big Lake and Houston and there was an incident that happened there and she received numerous phone calls regarding the troopers and a high speed chase that they did through a construction site zone. She indicated she would like information on how it would affect a high speed chase if it were done in a construction area. She reiterated that the troopers sped through the construction zone without regard to the people's safety. She suggested that DOT/PF and DPS address this problem. Number 1826 REPRESENTATIVE COWDERY stated that it's probably not a function of DOT/PF to keep records regarding injuries within a particular work zone. He said he would hope that this bill wouldn't add a bureaucracy on to DOT/PF to try and track the number of injuries properly. SENATOR DONLEY said SB 304 is not intended as a revenue generator. It's really intended as a deterrent to protect the employees as they are exposed to working on the roadways. He noted the bill is supported by the construction industry and by the people who represent the workers. He indicated he has not heard any opposition to this bill through the process. REPRESENTATIVE ELTON said he believes that the data regarding these kinds of offenses in a work zone will be easily collected with the passage of this bill because the enhanced fines will be part of the court record. Data collection will be much easier at that point in time. Number 1930 REPRESENTATIVE ELTON made a motion to move CSSB 304(RLS) out of committee with individual recommendations and the attached fiscal note. He noted that the Judiciary Committee has already considered a bill similar to this one which passed out of committee. REPRESENTATIVE MASEK objected because of her concerns with the bill stating that she wants some information regarding the topics she discussed. She commented she would not have a problem moving the bill out of the committee after the information she requested is provided. She said there are pieces missing to this bill that she would like to see included before she is able to vote in favor of moving it out. Number 1985 JUANITA HENSLEY, Chief, Driver Services, Division of Motor Vehicles, Department of Administration, told the committee the way that the records are kept is if someone speeds in a construction zone, it's still a speeding ticket and it's not coded as such that DOT/PF would maintain any records that it was identified as a work zone. However, with this bill, there is a special speed in a construction zone code that they can use which will identify those violations when they occur in a work zone. If there is a traffic crash within in a work zone, there are several ways of tracking those violations. If there's a serious injury or fatality, those records are kept in the trauma registry. She said DOT/PF has a highway analysis system which is a traffic accident database that monitors and tracks all traffic crashes in the state and it will tell you exactly what mile post the accident happened at, what the contributing factor was, whether it was in a construction zone, whether it was speed related, et cetera. She said that database reports those types of accidents to the federal government. She noted that there is another database in DOT/PF within the Governor's Highway Safety office through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration called the FAR System which is the Fatal Accident Reporting System that tracks traffic crashes throughout the United States. She said the data base identifies whether the crash was fatal, if the driver caused the fatal accident, or whether it was a construction person. She said the information is all there, it's just a matter of extrapolating it out of those databases. She stated that SB 304 will allow DOT/PF to code violations that occur in construction zones, and not just code them as speeding tickets, but can code them as a violation within a construction zone. REPRESENTATIVE MASEK removed her objection. She said she hopes that DOT/PF and DPS will be able to provide more information to the committee on the number of highway construction workers injured on the job. Number 2125 CHAIRMAN WILLIAMS asked if there are any other objections to moving the bill out of committee. There being no objection, CSSB 304(RLS) moved from the House Transportation Standing Committee.